Arlington Heights Resident Wins Phi Beta Kappa Award at Illinois Wesleyan University

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.- Natalie Hoijer of Arlington Heights has received received this year's Phi Beta Kappa Liberal Arts Scholar Awards at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Phi Beta Kappa is the nation's oldest academic society and recognizes excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. Illinois Wesleyan's Phi Beta Kappa Liberal Arts Scholar Awards foster and celebrate student research that engages, translates and bridges academic disciplines and/or crosses traditional boundaries. Applicants submit a research paper or a work of art, music composition, film, collection of poetry or research that stemmed from experiential learning.

Hoijer graduated cum laude with research honors with majors in mathematics and music. Her research explored the impact of mathematical patterns such as Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio on the style, structure and aesthetic beauty of a composition as a whole. She further considered how those techniques set the piece apart from other works that do not use such mathematics. During the Illinois Chamber Music Festival last summer, Hoijer created activities and surveys for high school students attending the camp to gather more data for her project, "Unleashing Music's Hidden Blueprint: An Analysis of Mathematical Symmetries Used in Music."

"My findings showed that the Fibonacci series and the Golden Mean were the most effective compositional tools and yielded the most aesthetically pleasing results," she said.

Hoijer also received the Katherine Riedelbauch Baker Music Award during Illinois Wesleyan's Commencement.

She will pursue a master's degree in flute performance in the fall. She also plans to obtain a certificate to teach high school math.

Founded in 1850, Illinois Wesleyan is a nationally recognized, highly selective liberal arts university enrolling approximately 1,900 undergraduates from across the nation and around the globe.